Previews

Haunting Ground

Puzzles that don't require Hewie usually involve the castle's alchemy chamber, where Fiona will return to mix together items she finds in her travels to create concoctions used to progress through the castle. She'll also deal with the castle's other inhabitants, including a dead-souled maid named Daniella, a hooded butler called Riccardo, and a suspiciously helpful old man named Lorenzo.

Though the PS2 is an aging system, Haunting Ground wrings a lot out of the hardware -- the decrepit passages of the castle are nicely portrayed without too many jaggies, and the deliberately stop-start animation and black-and-white bleed filters applied when Fiona is panicking make the scary moments even scarier. Particularly well done are the cinema scenes -- while the expressiveness of the "actors" isn't up to something like Resident Evil 4, the direction by professional film actor and director Naoto Takenaka brings another level of polish to the way the cinema scenes are framed and edited.

The Clock Tower games have always carved out their own little sub-niche within survival-horror, and the addition of Hewie makes this the most sophisticated attempt at the formula yet. If the idea of wandering the dank halls of a European castle with only a dog at your side sounds good to you, then start waiting for the game's release this May.